Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese detainee in Iran, contacted President Michel Aoun, congratulating him on Independence Day, and hoping that the “aspirations of the Presidency to have a protective umbrella above every Lebanese would be realized in the new year,” according to a statement issued by Zakka’s family.
Zakka also contacted the head of Parliament, saying that he hoped “Speaker Nabih Berri would raise the issue of his continued arbitrary detention during his next visit to Iran.”
According to the statement, the Lebanese detainee has also managed to contact Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri from his underground detention cell, hoping that this occasion “would achieve the Premiership’s aspirations of being a father to the Lebanese, to protect them wherever they are and to defend their rights, especially in international forums...and to vote in the United Nations for the benefit of the Lebanese people.”
Zakka was arrested after traveling to Iran to attend a state-sponsored conference in the capital, Tehran, in 2015. At the time of his arrest, he was the secretary-general of IJMA3, an Arab communications organization, and had received an official invitation to visit Iran.
